"Then he says to me 'come on start' or something along those lines. I just said 'leave it' and he started to punch and kick me."

Mr Whalley's fiancee Lorraine Dixon, who was waiting in the car for him, said: "Barry Whyte started hitting Mark and dragged him towards the garages. He was hitting him with his fists. Mark wasn't doing anything. He had his hands over his face."

Vince McDade, defending, put it to Mr Whalley that he was exaggerating the whole incident because he only suffered slight bruising to his chest and a scratch to his neck.

The court heard there had been other altercations between the two men in the past and Whyte had been convicted on two other occasions of assaulting Mr Whalley.

Mr McDade said to Mr Whalley: "This would have been the icing on the cake to get him 'done' for the third time."

Whyte admitted punching Mr Whalley once in self-defence but said he had not hit him more than that.

However, magistrates convicted him of common assault. Whyte will be sentenced at a later date.